Main menu

You are here

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Deer belong in forests

Sep 14, 2012

Deer are beautiful animals in the right setting. Unfortunately, the herds have grown in numbers, are starving because of human intrusion and reduced browsing area, and are often diseased. The deer have resorted to eating and destroying naturally occurring and cultivated plants, resulting in enormous financial losses to homeowners and degradation to the natural beauty of the park system.

If this were the only impact on us, it might be acceptable. Unfortunately, it is not. Deer can host ticks and carry Lyme disease. Deer browse through residential neighborhoods and on plants in people’s yards where adults and children come in contact with shrubs and grasses that frequently harbor the deer ticks. If diseased ticks were to be present and a child brushed up against that plant, the tick would attach itself to the child, engorge itself on the child’s blood and then drop off. Lyme disease frequently goes undiagnosed and, if untreated, can lead to a lifelong serious medical problem.

Additionally, herds have been found to have tuberculosis, which is transmissible to humans and are also dying in substantial numbers from a hemorrhagic disease. It has been stated that there is currently no evidence that this disease is transmissible to humans. That is a medical disclaimer and doesn’t preclude the possibility that future evidence may find that it is transmissible to humans.

Deer belong in forests, not in residential neighborhoods. The deer herds that are in close contact with neighborhoods should not just be reduced, they should be totally eliminated. The DNR should take whatever steps they deem necessary to eliminate the deer population in proximity to developed areas.

Dr. Lloyd Rotz
Spring Lake

Comments

Not sure I'm totally fond of qoutes pulled from a suspected domestic terrorist organization: http://www.animalliberationfront.... Perhaps Dr. Awerbuch is unaware of this. Nonetheless, the Centers for Disease Control seems to take a different view on White-tailed deer being carriers of the blacklegged tick: "Ixodes scapularis may be introduced into new areas by several routes. Adult I. scapularis are carried into new areas primarily by deer (43), which are capable of ranging over wide areas, especially along riparian corridors. However, infected adult ticks have limited potential for spreading Lyme disease since transovarial transmission of B. burgdorferi is rare. Small mammals are efficient disease reservoirs, and juveniles tend to disperse during the spring and summer when tick larvae and nymphs are questing. However, the potential for long-range dispersal of Lyme disease by rodents is limited, since they occupy much smaller home ranges than deer(44)". To read the entire study, and it's a good read, check out this out. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article.... This issue is more complicated than GN et al would have us believe. And of course, the program at North Ottawa Dunes is intended to help mitigate damage from deer browsing, not the elimination of carriers of Lyme Disease. Perhaps you can provide us links to the articles you cite so that we might view them in their full context, and not just the selected portions you so easily cut and paste.

Once again in this conversation the dialogue is pulled away from the issue. RenegadeX is correct in refocusing on the ISSUE. We are all guilty of losing sight of what needs to be addressed. So, I will again pose the question to those in opposition to the hunt, what is your solution? The debate should be on that solution.

'Deer belong in the forest'...DON'T build your houses in the forest. thanks for insight and the truth, this whole deer issue reminds me few years ago, someone hating dogs and formed a group to ban dogs from parks, beaches, just a example how the government gets involved controlling your life